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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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Shelf TP.4 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




FOR THE 



ANCHORAGE 



FOR THE STORM-TOSSED 



— u And she was a widow. 



Compiled and Edited by 

ROSE ^PORTER, 

AUTHOR OF "FOREGLEAMS OF IMMORTALITY," " COMFORT FOR MOTHERS 
OF ANGELS," ETC. 



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NEW YORK : 

Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 

9OO BROADWAY, COR. 20th ST. 



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COPY 




ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY. 



Edward O. Jenkins 1 Sons, 

Printers and Stereotypers y 

20 North William St., New York. 



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" Our dear Lord and Saviour, who is also our 
example and pattern, in all our sufferings, com- 
fort yOU." Luther. 

Thus saith the Lord, — " Let thy widows trust 
in Me." 

Remember, 

Not long will it be before you meet again, 

" A circle never to be sundered more, 
No broken link, a family in Heaven." 

BlCKERSTETH. 



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I. 



" A WIDOW! what a desolate name ! Yes, 
you may weep, you must, you ought ; 
you are placed by Providence in the region of 
sorrow, and tears befit your condition. " 

James. 

u Jesus wept ! The Saviour has consecrated 
sorrow. He has made it a holy thing to weep. — 

" Be not ashamed of thy weeping, thou be- 
reaved one ! only let thy tears be shed at the 
feet of Jesus, and see that thy sorrow does not 
degenerate into selfishness, or develop into re- 
bellion against the will of God." 

" The Christian mourner may always count 
upon the sympathy of Jesus. Thou mourning 
one, who art to-day bewailing the loss of hus- 

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ANCHORAGE. 

band, thou mayest rely on His sympathy, for 
though He is sitting on the throne, He has still 
the same tenderness for those who are in sor- 
row as He manifested at the grave of Laza- 
rus ! " W. M. Taylor. 



Be comforted, 



" Jesus wept ! and still in glory 

He can mark each mourner's tear ; 
Loving to retrace the story 

Of the hearts He solaced here. 
Jesus wept ! that tear of sorrow 

Is a legacy of love ; 
Yesterday, to-day, to-morrow, 

He the same doth ever prove.' 



II 



" T ET your grief be such that your consola 
tions shall be more, for you have not 
lost thy loved one, but sent him before you, 
that he may be kept for ever blessed. " 

Luther. • 

" He pleased God, and was beloved of Him : 
so that, whereas he lived among sinners, He 
translated him." anon. 

" Happy we are ! 
For though we stand alone, 
Like the disciples gazing up to Heaven, 
Toward our ascended one, 

We know that God, who takes what He has given, 
Never a soul forsakes, 

And surely gives again that which He takes. 
He who has passed above the sky 
Has gone in time, comes in eternity.*' 

Clarke. 

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ANCHORAGE 

" The withdrawal of a friend from our side is 
a special providence, even for ourselves. Never 
does the grave take hold of a mortal's feet, but 
his companion hath an omnipresent Eye the 
while fixed on him in compassion. We should 
think of that Eye, as well as of the Hand that 
taketh away. Meditation on the dead quickens 
our faith in the unseen, for sorrow hath a sacred 
efficacy ; there being no touch so purifying as 
that of a dead man's hand." 

MOUNTFORD. 

" He whom thou loved and lost .... 
Dwells in those cities far from mortal woe, — 
Haunts those fresh woodlands, whence sweet carol- 
lings soar. 

Eternal peace has he ; 
God wipes his tears away ; 
He drinks that river of life which flows for evermore." 

Anon. 

Be comforted. After earth — Heaven. 

After parting — meeting. 

IO 



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III 

T ON ELY one, listen to the words of a heart 
stricken and sore bereaved even as thou 
art. Trust as she trusted, and say as she said, 
" Thy will be done. The Lord gave, and the 
Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of 
the Lord," and then thou wilt find, though thy 
sun be set, though it be eventide with thee, yet, 
at eventide it shall be light. 

" It has pleased an all-wise God to take to 
Himself my beloved husband, and to write upon 
me, the happiest of wives, Widow. 

" O Thou Infinite Jehovah, I claim Thy prom- 
ise that Thou, my Maker, will be my husband, 
and counsel and direct me in every duty before 
me. I can no longer ask my husband, and re- 
ceive aid and counsel from him, in every diffi- 



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ANCHORAGE. 

culty, but if Thou lift upon me the light of Thy 
countenance, and make Thy word a light to my 
feet and a lamp to my path, I can not err. . . . 
" I devote myself to Thee in my new charac- 
ter as widow, and claim all the promises to such 
in Thy precious Bible. I desire to glorify Thee 
in this hot furnace of affliction, to see Thy 
hand in my bereavement. My idol Thou hast 
taken away, my gourd Thou hast withered. 
Lord, help me or I perish/' M rs. bethune. 

" I, the Lord, am with thee, 

Be thou not afraid ! 
I will help and strengthen, 

Be thou not dismayed ! 
Yea, I will uphold thee 

With my own Right Hand ; 
Thou art called and chosen 

In my sight to stand. 



God is all-sufficient — 

Onward, then, and Fear not." 



Havergal 



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IV. 



si T T OW tenderly our compassionate Lord 
speaks of the widow ! He seems in- 
tent to fill up every gap love has been forced to 
make ; one of His errands from Heaven was to 
bind up the broken-hearted. He has an answer 
for every complaint you may ever be tempted 
to utter. Do you say you have none now to 
follow, to walk with, to lean on ? He will fol- 
low you and invite you to come up from the 
wilderness leaning on Him as your beloved. Is 
it that you want one to be interested in all your 
concerns ? * Cast all your cares upon Him, for 
He careth for you/ Do you need a protector ? 
' Let thy widows trust in Me': is His promise. 
An adviser? ' Wonderful counsellor': is His 

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ANCHORAGE, 

name. Do you seek a companion ? ' I will not 
leave you comfortless ; I will come unto you ; I 
will never leave you, nor forsake you/ Do you 
want one to weep with you ? ' In all their 

affliction He was afflicted'; ' Jesus wept'; 

when you lie down you are safe under the shad- 
ow of His wings, under the banner of His love. 
When you awake, He is still about your path." 

Remember, 

" The promises of God must be true ; surely 
the Lord will help you, if you are willing to be 
helped? 

" For all the promises of God in Him are 
yea, and in Him Amen," 2 cor. i. 20. 

" Here is a covert from the storm, when winds and 
waves arise, 
A shadow in the scorching noon, a light in starless 

skies ; 
A staff upon the rugged road, a shield when foes as- 
sail. — 



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ANCHORAGE. 



Draw near, thou reft and drooping heart, draw near 

and lift thy gaze 
To Him who yearns with outstretched arms thee 

from thy grief to raise ; 
Draw near, and, clinging close beneath thy Saviour's 

bleeding heart, 
Tell o'er each throb of that deep woe in which thou 

hast a part ; 



.... All thy weary heart-aching upon that true love 

cast ; 
In Jesus' Cross and Passion is the medicine of thy 

soul, 
Yea, there is balm in Gilead, and a Healer to make 

thee whole/' 

S ELLON. 



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EMEMBER, 



" Death gives us sleep, eternal youth, and immortality. 
.... Death is another life." 

RlCHTER. 

" The hand fell and the pulse faltered ; and 
it was done ; and the spirit was fled, — the spirit 
that was woven into ours as with meshes of 
steel. And now not one lisp out of the sky, 
not one whisper out of the night, to tell us and 
comfort us. Mystic orphanage of spirits that are 
filial ! mystic divorce of spirits that are wedded ! 
And the years move on. We remember them and 
they remember us, we think. They worship 
there and we worship here, — a broken chorus 
rendering one psalm : they with eyes from which 

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ANCHORAGE. 

all tears have been tenderly wiped, and with 
faces beautiful with looking upon the front of 
God ; we with eyes all tear-bedimmed, stum- 
bling over the roughness of life, wondering, hop- 
ing, and waiting ; waiting till our exile shall be 
repealed, our little island of loneliness and ex- 
pectation be made continuous with the conti- 
nent of the redeemed, and no more sea in the 
new city of God." c. h. Parkhurst. 

And, 

" There shall ye find your dead in Christ arisen, 
And learn from them to sing the angels' song." 

" Oh, it is sweet to think 
Of those that are departed. 



Dear dead ! they have become 
Like guardian angels to us, 
And distant Heaven, like home. 

O dearest dead ! to Heaven 
With grudging sighs we gave you, 

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ANCHORAGE. 

To Him ! be doubts forgiven ! 

Who took you there to save you ! — 

Now get us grace to love 

Your memories yet more kindly, 

Pine for our homes above, 

And trust to God more blindly." 



Fabkr. 






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VI. 

" Can I call that home where I anchor yet, 
Though my good man has sailed ? " 

"'"T^HINK, sorrowing one, of the wonders of 
the grace of God ; and remember His 
promise, ' My grace is sufficient for you/ — 
sanctifying grace, sustaining and supporting 
grace, made perfect in your weakness, if you 
trust in Christ. " — 

" The treasured life of your home, of your heart, 
is taken, but when the tremendous blow came, 
lo ! sustaining grace came with it. — You may 
rise above your trial, for underneath are the 
Everlasting arms. You may tread life's lonely 
way sorrowful, yet with a 'song- in the night '; 
for amid earth's separations and sadness, you 

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ANCHORAGE. 

may hear the voice of Jesus, saying, ' L<* ! I 
am with you alway, even unto the end of the 

world '; and, He is able to make all grace 
abound toward you. Cast all your cares, and 
each care, as it arises, on Him, saying, in child- 
like faith, ' Undertake Thou for me ! ' Then, 
the mournful, desolate, solitary, rugged path 
you tread, will be carpeted with Love, fringed 
with Mercy, and earth's darkest future will grow 
bright as you listen to a Voice stealing from 
the upper sanctuary, l I will come again and 
receive you unto myself ; that where I am, there 
ye may be also.' 



McDuff. 

And, there dear families are gathered." 



" What matter how the winds may blow, 
Or blow they east, or blow they west ; 

What reck I how the tides may flow, 
Since ebb or flood alike is best. 

No summer calm, no winter gale, 
Impedes or drives me from my way ; 



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ANCHORAGE. 

I steadfast toward the Haven sail 
That lies, perhaps, not far away. 

" What matter how the winds may blow, 

Since fair or foul alike are best ; 
God holds them in His hand, I know, 

And I may leave to Him the rest, 
Assured that neither calm nor gale 

Can bring me danger or delay, 
As I still toward the Haven sail 

That lies, I know, not far away/' 

ex 


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VII. 

" A LL which is real, remaineth and fadeth 

never ; and love is real." 

" Yes ! consolation. Yours, even yours is not 
a case that excludes all comfort. There is balm 

for the wounds of a widow's heart You 

still feel a mysterious and happy fellowship, 
though separated by the wide, deep gulf of the 
grave. Extract comfort, then, from your very 
tears, for love has left a drop even in them. 
You were happy, and that should prevent your 
being wretched now ; you were his comfort on 
earth, and assisted him in his pilgrimage to 
Heaven ; where, perhaps, he is now thinking of 
you before the throne, and finding a place for 



ANCHORAGE. 

your name in the song of gratitude before the 
fountain of mercy." 

11 He that pitied the widow of Nain, pities you. 
' In all your affliction, He is afflicted, and the 

angel of His presence is with you/ Not a 

promise died, when your husband died. Not a 
single Gospel consolation lies entombed in His 

sepulchre. Wherefore comfort yourself with 

these thoughts." jAMES . 

" I know, O Lord, that in faithfulness Thou 
hast afflicted me." Ps# cxix . 75 . 

"For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." 

Heb. xii. 6. 

" God is our refuge and strength, a very pres- 
ent help in time of trouble." Ps . x i v j. r< 

" He knoweth the way that I take; when He 
has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." 

Job xxiii. 10. 



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ANCHORAGE. 

" Affliction cometh not forth of the dust, 
neither doth trouble spring out of the ground. " 

Job v. 6. 

But, 

" In all our afflictions He is afflicted. " 

Is. lxiii. 9. 

And, 

" In that He Himself hath suffered being 
tempted, He is able to succor them that are 
tempted. ,, heb. xu. 18. 

" The sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared with the glory to be re- 
vealed in US." Rom. viii. 18. 

Remember, 

" It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth 
Him good." 1 Sam. m. 18. 


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VIII. 

" From the eternal shadow rounding 

All our sun and starlight here, 
Voices of our lost ones sounding 

Bid us be of heart and cheer, 
Through the silence, down the space, 

Falling on the inward ear." 

<TJE whom thou hast lost is now in the 
presence of God and of the Lamb, un- 
speakably and unchangeably happy. Hear his 
voice now saying to you, ' Come up hither '; 
come by faith, come upon the wings of prayer. 
The nearer you draw to Jesus, the nearer you 
approach to me. The more Christ-like you be- 
come, the nearer, the clearer, and more lumin- 
ous, you shine to me. Anticipate in faith and 

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ANCHORAGE, 

hope that blessed day when you shall be with 
me, and we shall together be forever happy with 

the Lord/' cumming. 

" Farewell, thou dear, dear soul, farewell ! 

To those sweet pleasures go, 
That we who mourning here must dwell, 

Not yet, alas ! can know. 
Ah, when shall that great day be come, 

When these things fade away, 
And thou shalt bid us welcome home ; 

Would God it were to-day ! " 

Sacer, 1665. 

" It is better with him now than where he 
was. God help you to journey thence after 
him, although without sorrow, that journey 
will not, can not be made." luther. 



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IX. 

H, widowed one, 



" Believe — never doubt — that the Gpd who bereft you, 
Permits him to think of you whom he still loves." 

Fields. 

" He tarried with you, and nurtured a human 
love ; he departed from you, and kindles a di- 
vine. Martineau. 

" The righteous sleep in Jesus. In death they 
are still one with Him.- — 

" All the rights and privileges which belong 
to believers, in virtue of their union with Christ, 
remain with them in and after death undimin- 
ished, unimpaired. Whatever is meant by their 

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ANCHORAGE. 

being in Christ, is meant of them now they are 
dead. 

" Wherefore you are still one with him whom 
you have lost ; you meet in Christ's spiritual 
body, and are bound by a mystical tie in the 
same sacred fellowship. 

. . . . " Heaven will be a region of vitality ; 
a living world, a world of life. The widow's 
God shall be there, but not the widow, as a 
widow. Her tears will be wiped away ; her sor- 
rows will be turned into joy, for she will be asso- 
ciated again with the co'mpanion of her pilgrim- 
age in the ties of a spiritual fellowship ; for they 
shall be as the angels of God, and shall dwell 
together forever in that glorious state, of which 
it is said, there, shall be no more death" 



James. 



" Dear friend, far off, my lost desire, 
So far, so near, in woe and weal ; 

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ANCHORAGE. 

Oh, loved the most when most I feel 
There is a lower and a higher ; 

" Known and unknown, human, divine ! 
Sweet human hand and lips and eye, 
Dear Heavenly friend that canst not die, 
Mine, mine, for ever, ever mine I" 



Tennyson. 



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X. 



* f \\ 7E are conquerors of death when we are 
able to look beyond it. — And there- 
fore it is, that faith, and nothing but faith, gives 

Victory in death." Robertson. 

" The steps of faith 
Fall on the seeming void, and find 
The Rock beneath. " 

Whittier. 

" Blest are they who look on graves and still 
believe none dead." — 

" The waters of affliction ! The whole atmos- 
phere of human life contains them ; every place 
which man calls his home, and every thing he 

gathers about it, acknowledge their presence." 

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ANCHORAGE. 

" Yet the promise is, ' When thou passeth 
through the waters I will be with thee/ Jesus 
with us.— And He will go with us through the 
weary road, as one who has travelled it before ; 
suffer as we may, He knows, not by His Divine 
omniscience only, but by His Divine-human ex- 
perience, what that suffering is ; and it was thus 
that His Humanity became Divine, and that 
this Divine Humanity became, and is, the sov- 
ereign Lord Of SOrrOW." Parsons. 

Hence remember, 

" Let not your heart be troubled." Jesus said, 
" My Father's house have mansions large and fair." 

" Yet one pang, searching and sore, 
And then Heaven for evermore ; 
Yet one moment awful and dark, 
Then safely within the Veil and the Ark ; 
Yet one effort by Christ, His grace, 
Then Christ for ever face to face." 

ROSSETTI, 
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ANCHORAGE. 

Tribulation teaches. He who is not tried, 

what does he know ? 

"If tribulation takes all away from us, it still 
leaves God ; for it can never take God away. 
Nay, indeed, it brings God to us." 

" Whoever can earnestly from the heart hum- 
ble himself before God, and acquiesce in His 
chastening, has already won the victory." 

Luther. 

" Thanks be unto God who giveth us the vic- 
tory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 



3* 



XL 



T T USH, mourner ! " It is but a little while 
and this world's griefs and troubles will 
be far behind. Weep, then, but dry thy tears. 
Mourn, but be comforted. — The great to-mor- 
row will soon be here." 

" All is well. — Does the storm blow ? Love 
Him who, when He ' commandeth and raiseth 
the stormy wind ' and i lifteth up the waves of 
life/ is as gentle, as tenderly and beneficently 
good, as when ' He maketh the storm a calm, 
so that the waves thereof are still '; and who, in 
storm and calm alike, will keep you safely with- 
in the sure haven of His care. — Is it night ? 
Love Him to whom l the darkness and the light 
are both alike/ but who, knowing well that they 
are not alike to us, has promised that weeping 

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ANCHORAGE. 

and night shall pass away together, and that joy 
shall come in the morning.'' Raleigh. 

" We see not, know not. All the way 
Is night. With Thee alone is day. 
From out the torrent's troubled drift, 
Above the storm one prayer we lift, 
Thy will be done ! 

" And if in our unworthiness 
Thy sacrificial wine we press ; 
If, from Thy ordeal's heated bars 
Our feet are seamed with crimson scars, 
Thy will be done ! 

" Strike — Thou the Master, we Thy keys — 
The anthem of our destinies ! 
The minor of Thy loftier strain, 
Our hearts shall breathe the old refrain, 
Thy will be done ! " 

Whittier. 

For, — " Like as a father pitieth, so the Lord 

pitieth ! And, what we know not now, we 

shall know hereafter." 

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XII. 

' r I MIE hand of God has touched you. Thy 
gourd has been taken away, but it has 
been transplanted a Tree of Righteousness into 
the Father's kingdom. " Hare. 

Be comforted. — " The bed of death was the 
presence-chamber of Jesus. — It is a solemn mo- 
ment as the soul passes away ; yet for us only 
it is a time of sadness. — Thy husband, if he 
could speak, would say, Weep not for me, but 
sing with me, O death, where is thy sting ? O 
grave, where is thy victory ?" 

Remember, 

" He who went with thy beloved, stays with 
thee. He can think of the living, as well as of 
the dying ; of those who have still to grapple 
with the last struggle, as well as of those who 
sing the conqueror's song. — You have lost much, 
but you have gained much ; earth is beneath 



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ANCHORAGE. 

you ; you have stood on the very threshold of 
Heaven, and the love of Christ is more real 
than ever." thorold. 

" I can hardly come down again from going 
up with him to a world of happiness and joy, 
and from feeling the release to his spirit from 
its earthly prison-house. The moment I look 
on myself it seems past bearing ; but, oh ! I re- 
joice and bless God that he was spared this bit- 
ter anguish of parting ; if one must be taken and 
one left, it is far best as it is." Maria hare. 

" Pass, ye mourners, cheerly on, 
Through prayer unto the tomb, 
Still, as ye watch life's falling leaf 
Gathering from every loss and grief 
Hope of new spring and endless Home. 

" Then cheerly to your work again 
With heart new-braced and set 
To run, untired, love's blessed race, 
As meet for those who face to face 
Over the grave their Lord hath met." 

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